Lombardic mandolin

Small lute-shaped, plucked stringed instrument with ribbed back and flat soundboard. Two-piece spruce top with an oval-shaped soundhole. Back made of alternated ribs of walnut and maple. Scalloped fretboard with 20 square-section, nickel-silver frets (one missing). Ivory nut. Six friction tuning pegs with six strings (three silver-wound and two gut; one missing). Pegbox terminating in square-shaped finial. Moustache-shaped, tie-bridge made of dark wood with two mother-of-pearl inlets. Asymmetrical dark, or stained, wood pickguard with concave-lozenge-tip on bass side, and flowing ovoid-curve sweeping towards the bridge at the treble side. Raised wooden clasp at the bottom of the instrument with mother-of-pearl dot. Marquetry instruments design (mandolin, horn, lyre) entwined with foliage on the edges of back. Purfling made of black-mastic with square-diamond-shaped, mother-of-pearl inlays around the edges of the soundboard, the soundhole and the pegbox. Eight-pointed, floral-star mother-of-pearl inlay on the finial. This instrument is part of the Albert C. Spencer collection.